Sentences Received By Foreigners in North Korea

Eduardo Murillo Ugarte
President of AIPCorea
Author of Hell in North Korea

In the late 60's, I was imprisoned, arbitrarily and unjustly, with a large group of other foreigners. We were accused, among other things, of "horrible crimes against the people," and "spying for the CIA of the United States." Among the foreigners imprisoned in September 1967, were the French journalist Jack E. Sedillot and the Venezuelan poet Ali Lameda. The first one, died in Pyongyang in 1976 and Ali Lameda was released after spending 8 long years in a prison camp in Sariwon (North Korea). This information about Lameda and Sedillot, I obtained from an Amnesty International publication, dated February 24, 1979, entitled "Ali Lameda: A personal account of the experience of a prisoner of conscience in the Democratic People's Republic of Korea.”

In the 1960s, the crew of the "USS Pueblo" ship, a United States naval unit, were also arbitrarily imprisoned, and according to Kim Il Sung's government, carried out spying maneuvers in North Korean territorial waters. The ship was on the Daedong River in Pyongyang for a long time, anchored as a museum.

Most of the foreigners detained in North Korea and then subjected to forced labor, are missionaries who have entered the country for the purpose of humanitarian work.

In 2015, a Canadian pastor of South Korean origin, was accused of subversive activities, and was sentenced to life imprisonment with hard labor in North Korea. Hyeon Soo Lim, pastor of the Presbyterian Church of Light in Toronto, appears to be the last one, in a series of foreign missionaries detained for meddling in the country's affairs, according to Kim Jong Un's government authorities.

The last news known about Pastor Hyeon Soo Lim (January 2016) reveal that the condemned missionary is forced to work 6 hours of hard labor per day, 6 days a week, drilling holes in farmland. It should be noted that the religious individual arrested is 60 years old and had traveled to North Korea more than 100 times, in order to sustain and maintain the existence of several orphanages.

Among the foreigners detained in North Korea, tourists have not been overlooked. The last American arrested and then sentenced to 15 years of hard labor, is the student Otto Frederick Warmbier. North Korea’s accusation is that the 21-year-old student attempted to steal a political propaganda poster located in staff quarters of the Yanggakdo hotel in Pyongyang. According to the news, released by the official North Korean news agency, Warmbier admitted to the attempted robbery at a press conference on February 29th. According to the North Korean Agency, on said occasion, with tears in his eyes, the American student pleaded for his release. That was where, according to the news agency, he declared to have acted in this manner, by order of an Ohio State Protestant church and supported by a university group for the purpose of "damaging the motivation and work ethic of the Korean people" and to "insult on behalf of the West," North Korea. He also assured that the CIA was informed of his "mission" and mentioned a supposed Washington plan to harm the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, through the Methodist church.

It should be noted that the statements made by the detainees in North Korea are usually made under terrible threats and, many times, accompanied by the promise that said statements, will be the only way to be free, some day.